If a little baby human happens to have something terribly wrong with it at birth, something that will make its' life considerably more difficult, the first thing people tend to do is look for ways to help it. They don't automatically assume the best route would be to kill it, so that it wouldn't have to deal with the problems it might have later on in life, or so that it wouldn't have to go through so much more to do what everyone else does with ease. Why is it that we have such double standards where animals are concerned?
This horse farm I live on happens to have anywhere between ten and twenty foals at any given time, less at times. They've been raising them for a very long time now, and I don't think they've lost more than one or two babies, ever. There was a baby born the other day, three weeks past its due date. It was cramped up for way too long and that has effected its front legs, which happen to be pretty stiff and tense, which means it really hasn't been able to stand up yet. (Considering they're generally able to stand up within the first hour on their own, this isn't such a good thing.) These are all race horses here, and thus this foal's problem because a bit more of a concern. I'm not sure if it's going to be able to ever run, the tendons are so tight and it will be extremely difficult just to get it walking. The problem really is, though, that they probably won't even do everything that they can to get the little thing up and moving around because a) it would cost too much, and b) it will never be of much value to them. They're by no means cruel people, but money-minded, I'd have to say. I've heard several times now that they might have to "put it down", which seems completely ridiculous to me. There has to be something you can do for such things.. a surgery perhaps, if nothing else.
The thing that probably bothers me the most about the whole situation, is that the foal hasn't given up. He tries so hard to stand up over and over and then collapses in exhaustion only to try again a few minutes later. It sure doesn't seem as if he'd like to die, or give up, any time soon..
It just seems so foolish that people would come to the conclusion that killing something before it's even seen the light of day is a fair alternative. It just is not, and never will be, in my opinion. I'm tempted to punch them all in the head and steal it.. however unrealistic that might sound, it certainly isn't any more so than killing a poor little baby horse.
I guess you could look at it in a few ways.. it will have a hard life, at least to start, no matter what you choose to do. So do children born with no legs at all, but they can still enjoy life. It's a hard call, I guess.. it's just that if it were me, I'd do things so much differently. It's easy to be the observer, too.. ah well.
If anyone actually has any sort of experience with this type of thing, you could let me know (in a /msg or something) of ways that you can help foals in such situations.. damn humanity. |
